If Only There Were Options….

Oh please. What “unambiguous public desire to put the fate of the nation in the hands of progressives?” The mood of the electorate is anti-Republican, not pro-progressive. Most of the new congresscritters the Dems are likely to pick up will be centrist or conservative, not progressive.

Obviously, the two are linked sentiments. But there is a difference. This is why I bring up Bill Clinton’s 43 percent of the vote. The serious analysis I’ve seen almost always indicates that Clinton was the second-choice of most of Ross Perot’s voters, but the fact remains that Ross Perot was their first choice. That was anti-Republican sentiment in action. If Americans are really committed to right-wing principles, but poisoned by Bush against the Republican Party, then we should expect to see an Obama plurality tomorrow night and a strong showing for Bob Barr as center-right voters in a center-right country register their center-right displeasure with the GOP by voting for a non-GOP, non-liberal candidate.

But my guess is that we’ll see Obama get a majority.

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And, yes, we’ll also see a lot of instances of conservative Republicans being beaten by relatively moderate Democrats. But we’ll also see some instances of Republicans being beaten by strong progressives. And we’re going to see few-to-no instances of progressive Democrats losing. Compared to 1992 where Democrats actually lost ground in the House and treaded water in the Senate, it’ll be a clear indication on all three levels of government for a shift in a more progressive direction.